They brought me to a separate building; I’ve heard from Vince it was the administrative facility, where all the professors resided and worked. They walked me to an office; the nameplate informed of a “prof. R. Tanaka” working there. Under the name, it had “mythology studies” written on, so it made sense why I was brought there.

Vertig walked in without knocking or announcing the intrusion, the office was empty. I could smell a faint smell of jasmine and ginger, the desk right before the door was decorated with a nice, simplistic flower arrangement. At the side of the work desk, I noticed a smaller tea table with a porcelain set, teapot steaming, eluding that nice leafy smell.

“Ah, Vertig-san,” came a raspy, yet lulling voice. “Yes, I was waiting for you. Please, sit,” he showed us to the tea table and three cushions to sit on. The man himself had a thick accent, and I recognized his round glasses and small stature from the time when I had to pass that physical strength test.

I had no opportunity to closer inspect the man then, but now I could clearly see he was of an eastern descent, I guessed he was Japanese, what with the tea and the prefix he used to refer to Vertig.

“Mister Tanaka, I suppose, you remember Miss Knights,” he showed me and nodded his head for me to sit. 

“Ah, yes, of course. The beast slayer, yes.” He looked at me while pouring us some tea. Wann refused and sat further away. “Is she going to tell me something nice?”

“I’m not sure if you can call methods of killing “something nice”, but I’ll try,” I joked and sipped on the tea. The beverage had a flattering taste and I drank it all in one go.

“As long as it’s something new, it will be nice to hear, yes.”

He poured me more tea. This time I tried not to chug it in a second.

“So, what do you want to know?” I asked trying to stall for time, to figure out which parts to keep to myself and which ones to share. I wasn’t about to go and tell them where all the nests were.

“Everything you know.”

“Okay, I read the books and almanacs you have on the lore. I could start from there.”

“That would suffice.” Vertig decided to give me and this Tanaka man some space. He drank his tea in silence after those last words. 

“Okay. So the thing with silver,” I started. “It only helps in a couple of cases. Like simple silver only helps against the Creations – the humans turned to Cold Walkers.”

“You are saying, there are different kinds of them, yes?” Tanaka was surprised. He pulled out a notebook and began writing in it.

“Yes. There are three castes, so to say. Pure-bloods, Nobles and Creations. Pure-bloods were here from the very beginning, like when the first civilizations of humans started to build, so did they appear. Then they consummated among themselves and made more of them, but only the first ones are called Pure-bloods, because their blood, well, not blood, they don’t have blood, but only the originals are called that because they’re pure. Then the Nobles; Nobles are basically the Pure-bloods and other strong and powerful Cold Walkers, who were never human.”

“So you are saying, every Pure-blood is a Noble, yes?”

“Mhm. The Creation can never be a Noble. Because it once was a human. Creations are made by sucking a human dry and instead of blood filled with the venom from the fangs.”

“Could you provide us with the sample of this venom?”

“No. I don’t have the qualities of a Cold Walker. Basically, they use the venom to make the victim feel pleasure, to lessen the resistance. Creations don’t have it either. They’re only used as pawns in battles. And that is what you are mostly fighting. That’s why silver works.”

“Then, you are saying, if a Noble or a Pure-blood showed up, silver wouldn’t cut it, yes?”

“Exactly.”

“Then how did you kill that Pure-blood?” Wann inquired, rage poorly hidden under the cutting tone.

“I tore his head off.”

“You what?” All three men seemed to be caught off guard. 

“The only way to kill a Pure-blood is to tear its head off. Not cut, not stab, tear off.”

“What about Nobles then? How are they made? Because for now, I don’t get most of it,” Wann seemed to be confused by this whole conversation.

“Ugh... Basically, every third generation Pure-blood Noble loses the status of a Pure-blood because the ‘blood’ gets tainted by then.”

“What?”

“I know, it’s complicated, your small brain can’t handle it. It’d be better if you stopped trying.”

Wann jumped from his seat and growled at me, Vertig used his authority to silence the mutt, so the boy returned to his seat, “Continue.”

“Basically, Pure-bloods are killed by tearing off their heads. Other Nobles can only be killed with a silver blade forged in a red oak’s fire. The tree is so rare, there are maybe two of them left, if the Cold Walkers haven’t destroyed them yet. Also, by cutting off the head or stabbing the heart. Preferably, both. You can never be sure. Also, I think one of those swords was last seen somewhere in China.”

Tanaka wrote most of it down and seemed as if he was committing every word to his memory. 

“Then, most of our theories were off by a large margin, yes.” He lifted his head, fixing the glasses into place.

“No, not all. The silver was right, though only for Creations.  Also, the sunlight theory is correct. Every Cold Walker is vulnerable, the time it needs to work differs, it’s not like they turn aflame in a second. Pure-bloods need about ten hours to dry up completely. Nobles take up to five or so, and Creations don’t even need an hour. It’s like a severe burn. Also, since they have no liquid to keep them intact, they just turn to ashes.”

“That’s why they don’t bleed, yes.”

“Yes. They drink blood only to sustain the firm body state. Pure-bloods don’t feed too often, because they manage to conserve the intake better. So the stronger and older the Cold Walker is, the less blood it needs to consume. That is why, you people, brought the slaughters upon yourself by angering them and making them go out of their way to hunt for sport.”

Tanaka only nodded his head in understanding, while Vertig wanted to argue my theory on the stance of other supernaturals. I refused to elaborate on the topic more, because I did not want to get into an argument, I knew I was right in.

After all this they asked me different questions about minor lore discrepancies and other details. I could confidently talk about Moon Walkers, about the moon cycles and the methods of turning and surviving, their reproducing; I even mentioned a case of two males copulating and managing to conceive a child. But other supernaturals were tricky, since all of them hated me like fire. On most of the supernaturals, silver worked perfectly, but it had to meet certain conditions. 

I talked and talked and they listened. 

I never gave out the hot spots for nesting and communities. Gave no names or specific descriptions, I did not want to start a war by doing so. 

Humans were the most dangerous kind. Most of supernaturals tried to coexist with humans in this period, they were both tired and assimilated to the rhythm of modern life. 

I tried to avoid speaking more into detail about Pixies because they had nothing against humans; I had nothing to say about witches because those you’d better not mess with. I shared my experiences with most of them; I had met almost all of the other supernatural species, just because I lived long enough, also because they wanted me dead. Even the Pixies, the kindest and most peaceful species of all tried to kill me off. They locked me up in an iron box and threw me into the Atlantic, only to get brought up the surface together with the remains of that Titanic boat. 

You should have seen the surprise of the faces of those who opened the box.

“So, what are you again?” Tanaka asked as if the question was completely harmless.

“I am a hybrid, a crossbreed of a Cold Walker and a human.”

I heard a chair fall to the floor. Wann was standing, feet wide in an attack position, his katana, he took to carrying around after Vertig asked to babysit me, at the ready to slice me open. His eyes turned to fiery hells made me recall yet again all those times I was captured and burned at the stake. 

Vertig commanded Wann to calm down and stop interfering. Unwillingly, the man listened and sat down.

“And you were born, yes?” Tanaka continued.

I stopped observing Wann and turned back to the elderly man to answer, “If ripping through my own mother’s body you call being born, then yes.”

“And what is the name of the one who made you?”

“Right now he’s known as Frederic Dionysus Knights, I don’t know what he called himself before.”

“You are saying, your father is one of the oldest Cold Walkers in existence, yes?”

“Yes. Are we done yet?”

“I don’t think so,” Verting said, eyeing me as if I was caught red-handed.

“I told you everything I know. I got nothing else to say.”

“What about the nests?” Vertig pressured me.

“No one would be stupid enough to let me to their nests. They kill me off before I get closer than allowed. So can’t really help you with this,” I shrugged and stood up. “Thanks for the tea, it was delicious.” I bowed slightly and left the room, with Wann on my heels.

“I still can’t believe they let you- l-l-let you walk free,” Wann barked. “We should lock you up for good.”

To be honest, I expected him to jump me with his swords and cut me up, but he reacted far tamer than that. Though, considering he had no idea what I was, the suspense was the one driving him up a tree. Also, probably the fact that I could not die was stopping him from moving in vain. Sometimes he acted smarter than he looked.

I wanted to go see Vince again, but Wann steered me back to our room and told me to stay. I did not enjoy being treated like a dog, he was the one who should have been told to stay and behave. 

He collected his sports clothes – leggings and a tank top. I knew he was heading for the training room because it was too cold to run in only a light attire. On the days he goes running he would take his windbreaker. 

“Can I come with, though? You’re still supposed to watch me. I might just go to Vince, you know.”

“You want to train with me?” One of his eyebrows rose in suspicion.

“I would never refuse an opportunity to kick your ass, Mutt.”

He grumbled, but let me tag along. Apparently, I was still expected to participate in the hunter convention and I needed to be in my top shape. I always was in my top shape. Nothing, that humans could have prepared for that convention, could have thrown me off my feet. I could deal with any human fighter easily, in a flash. Supernaturals were a bit tricky, but they got nothing on me because I would just stand back up. 

Although I felt the initial pain from getting wounded, it dulled. The first couple hundred years still had me whining in pain whenever I died. Now, now I was numb to most of it. The more times I died, the less pain I could feel. 

Wann changed in the locker rooms and I just took off my jumper. I took to wearing sweatpants lately, so it did not really restrict my movement. Wann scoffed at me, commenting on my getup. It’s not like I wouldn’t shower after and change my clothes. 

“I’m giving you an advantage, be happy about it,” I teased. 

He took a stance for warm-ups and began stretching, I walked around the room, taking in every detail, every corner, and equipment displayed for use. 

He thought he could get me off guard, but I was quicker. I caught his attack in mid-air. At that exact moment an alarm, so painfully familiar, sounded.

“Shit,” was all Wann said and bolted out. 

I leaped after and took in as much air as possible to try gather the smells. All I could catch was a wet dog. 

“It’s inside,” I shouted after Wann. “A Moon Walker. Alone.”

The alarm was rushing students to get to the shelter and not engage the fight. 

Wann and I ran up to the surface. Sucking air in I ran where the smell was the strongest. Some girls were screaming – it got inside the dorms. Wann ran toward the sound of despair, but couldn’t make it. They were bleeding and unconscious, but still alive. 

I left Wann and kept following the smell. I tried to think of the motive of breaking in the lair of hunters. And dots connected pretty quickly, though, I really wanted to be wrong. I bolted straight to the med bay, to where Vince, a Bloomer was.

“Vince,” I called out in my authoritative voice, “Run!”

Sometimes I hated being right. Vince was cornered by a large, dark gray feral beast. But it was sane and intelligent. It knew exactly why it came here. My voice distracted the beast, but Vince was frozen, even my order did not make him move. 

“Hey, jackass,” I grabbed its tail, “play with me.”

The wolf barked with his bloody maw and bit into my arm which was holding its tail. The pressure was strong enough to rip it off, but I didn’t let it happen. I punched it to the nose, it let go whining. I used the confusion, and grabbed it by front legs, rammed it to the wall, at arm's length from my face. 

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“Vince, get out,” I ordered again. “Find Wann.”

This time the boy reacted and moved along the wall, as far away as possible from the vicious wolf. He left the room and the beast stared at me with its intelligent eyes. It calmed down enough to behave. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I began. “But if you keep chasing the Bloomer boy, who had nothing to do with the last of Lupin’s clan, I am going to personally skin you alive.”

The wolf whined and stopped struggling completely. Its bright amber eyes flashed that deeply hidden hatred toward me but did not give out any intention to tear me to shreds. Slowly, I took a step back. The wolf landed on all fours but kept its eyes on me. 

“Now, let’s do this – I walk you out of here and you disappear. Do not attempt to get back here or get even with the Bloomer boy. If I see you or anyone else from your pack near that human,” I paused to make sure it was paying attention, “I will not hesitate to obliterate you.”

The wolf barked and howled out; calling off the others. I knew it was not alone here. The rest of them were waiting further away from the dorms as to not rouse too much commotion. I was just wondering if they knew about me being here or not. 

“Relay the message to your Alpha. And please, don’t try to ignore my warnings. I really don’t like killing...”

I stepped away from the door letting the wolf walk in front. I’d rather see it leap in front than look back to make sure it’s still there. I had my blind spots, too. 

The beast strutted down the hall obediently, not trying to run off somewhere or attack me. I could still smell the blood from those girls it attacked before. I hoped it didn’t bite too deep – if the bite or a scratch was too deep, the victim was subjected to a possible change.

I walked it in the opposite direction from the dorms. The structure of the campus was nothing complicated, just the dorms and the administrative building had different entrances. And the med bay was on the first floor of the administrative building. 

I lead the wolf to the back door as to not rouse unnecessary turmoil. 

They had stopped the alarm for a while now, probably Vince found Wann. 

The air outside was crisp and cold. I noticed the previous puddles frozen over. I shivered. The wolf looked at me quizzically and howled again. I could hear three or four howling back. Also, the commotion behind me was getting louder and rowdier. The instructors, with Michail, according to the smell, were getting ready to hunt. 

“Scram. Now.”

The beast only barked and ran off into the moonlit night. Just as I couldn’t see it anymore, Michail showed up with a party of three others, the instructors I had yet to meet. I guessed, they were something like Vince – not students, but not exactly legitimate instructors, like Michail was. 

“You let it go?!” his booming voice made me flinch, but I did not move away from the entrance.

“Yes.”

“Are you stupid? You could have killed it or at least caught, to get what it wanted.”

“It wanted Bloomer. It was one of the lesser Lupin’s clan packs. They came here for revenge.”

“And you let them go?” Michail raised his voice and grabbed my shoulders. 

The three others passed me and were ready to launch the search. I struggled out of the man’s grip and got in the others’ way. I growled as loud as I could for them to get the message and stop the actions at once. No one looked confident enough to try and pass me again.

“The status?” Came Wann’s voice from behind the angry faced man.

“She let them escape,” Michail grumbled and marched off, probably to find Vertig and complain.

“You three, stand by, in case they decide to return. And you,” he jabbed a finger at my chest, “what were you th-thinking? Letting them go? Are you c-completely out of your mind? They’re killers. The girls it attacked were lucky e-en-enough it just knocked them out-”

“What?”

“What now do you not un-understand?”

“Knocked out? I smelled blood? And I’m pretty sure I also saw them bleed.”

“A cat.” My blank stare urged him to continue. “It brought in a dead cat. To confuse us. It was the cat’s blood. They were not scratched. If they were, they would already be in quarantine.”

“Okay… How’s Vince?”

“How should I know?”

“He’s not with you? He didn’t find you? I told him to-”

“No. Why would he? I p-punched him in the face and broke his jaw, you think he’d want to come find me wi-willingly? He’s probably in the sh-shelter with everyone else, hiding, like a coward he is.”

I shoved passed Wann and bolted to the shelter. Everyone was already filing out of the stronghold, but I couldn’t smell nor see the one I was looking for. I felt panic pool inside my chest and innards. My hands were shaking, my head spun out of restlessness. I could barely get back to the dorms and to his room. He wasn’t there. I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t there. 

My breath caught, I couldn't breathe in nor out. It was hands down the biggest panic attack I have ever experienced. And it hurt. It hurt to know I couldn’t protect him, even though I did everything I could. I tried to run out, to try and follow his scent, but I couldn’t. His scent vanished from the moment he ran out of the med bay.

In the moment of my panic, Vertig used the stun on my collar to make me calm down. To think I would be thanking them for it because if they didn’t, I would have done something terrible. Panic was one of the emotions I couldn’t control well, because it was such a rare occurrence, I didn’t know how to deal with it. 

Vertig assured me they would find him for me. I was too unstable to go look for him myself. For measure’s sake, they put me up in that same cage I had my first appearance as a beast slayer. I myself put my ass inside the cave that was connected to the cage. It was damp and smelled of mold, but at least it blocked most of the smells and sights.

Trying to sleep was a chore. Having no dreams at all was a blessing, too bad it did not happen this night. Having dreams about my past, the times when I met the one who made me, or the time he himself tried to tear me apart were nothing compared to the atrocity I saw that night. 

In addition to having to relive the tragedy of losing my loved ones again and again, I experienced Vince bleeding out with his heart ripped, a huge hole gaping where the beating organ should have been. Those deep pits for his eyes were dark and lifeless. I couldn’t feel the life in him anymore.

To say I woke up all sweaty and screaming would be an understatement; I screamed my throat raw, and in a fit of panic I smashed my body against the walls and the bars of the cage. Trashing around I managed to break my arm and crack the bridge of my nose. 

The obscurity of the situation was tearing my brain apart. I needed to see him, to know he was alright. I had to know he was still alive. Why couldn’t I smell him? Where did he disappear to? How could he just up and vanish just like that, leaving me in the suspense of his well-being and whereabouts?

I was about to break free from the bars holding me in, when a gentle touch to my strained knuckles startled me out of my insanity. I could barely focus my vision to the person who was there, right in front of me. So close yet so distant. The bars were in the way, but his eyes were worlds apart from the place we both were standing.

“Vince,” I croaked. 

He lightly brushed his fingers across my bloodied cheek, gently cupping it in his palm. The smile he gave me calmed me down a tad, but his eyes betrayed sorrow and pain. He was fighting battles I had no knowledge of and it would be a long time before he shared those feelings with me. The fake smile couldn’t mask the turmoil in his heart, but I decided to not pry further than demanding answers on where he was.

“I was in the shelter, with everyone else.”

“Don’t lie to me,” I uttered, barely a whisper.

“I’m not, Fey. I was hiding. I’m fine, am I not?” He moved a step back and turned around showing me he was not injured. “What happened here?” He asked brushing the blood away from my eyes.

“Nothing,” mumbling, I wiped my face with the uninjured arm and flinched seeing how much I bled. “I’ll just need more blood if I don’t want to go ballistic on someone, that someone probably being Wann.”

“That would be a bad idea. They’d lock you up for good.”

While talking, he whipped out a key from somewhere and unlocked the cage. I had an urge to just jump in his arms and never let go, but I tamed the feeling and just walked out calmly. 

He had other ideas, though. As soon as I stepped out, he reached his arms around me from behind and burrowed his face in the crook of my neck. He breathed in and savored the moment. I froze in place to wait out his affectionate behavior. He breathed in again and a couple more times. We stood there like that – frozen and lost in each other for a few moments until Wann came out and scrunched up his face. 

“Get a room,” he barked out. “And could you stop bleeding all over the place, for fuck’s sake.”

I gaped at the man before us, standing, waiting for us to separate. He did not explode into a fit of anger or threatened to slice me up, he just asked me nicely to stop. I was expecting him to blow up because I was not in the cage. I was expecting him to attack Vince for disappearing and turning up as if nothing happened. I was expecting him to be more pissed about this whole situation, but none of that happened. He was calm, well, calmer than usual. As if the anger he had felt every time he looked at me was gone, dissipated, as if it was never there. 

“Are you okay?” I asked, unsure.

“I should be the one asking that. How the hell did you manage to break your arm like that?”

Only then I noticed the bone sticking out. It really was a feat for me to not notice an open break, but I could explain it by the lack of sanity at the moment. Also, because of the lack of proper blood intake my bones became thinner. Not that I’m complaining, but if I would need to fight some other supernatural being, I would end up with more than just a bruise or a swelling. 

“I need blood.” The statement was drowned out by my own growls while trying to get the bone back in place. 

“...Okay...” I hated when the both of them were on the same page. The word said in unison made me shudder.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“That,” I pointed at Wann. “Right there. You’re being nice, as nice as you can be. It’s weird.”

“It’s not weird when you see him with his friends. Those who call him Hellsing,” explained Vince and got a glare from the aforementioned boy.

“Ew, I don’t want to be his friend.”

“Same here. I don’t want anything to do with this freak,” Wann spat out, his arms were wound on his chest, he was staring at something on the side.

“Well, let’s agree to the fact that both of you are behaving like civil people to each other. Also, I’ll give you blood. And you need to clean up. Can we go now? Or do you want to stay here?” Vince asked while looking all serious at Wann.

Wann only nodded, but I could see that angry pout peeking over his ‘I’m cool and serious’ aura. This whole shift of his behavior toward me and the atmosphere was strange, but it wasn’t that bad. Honestly, I was relieved I wouldn’t need to take on his constant threats and useless grumbling.

Vince walked us to the med bay once again. The giant doctor was there and she looked shocked upon seeing my face. My nose was still bleeding, but the tears were already dried. She used antiseptics to wipe my face clean. It appeared, the crack on my nose was larger than I suspected and she had to stitch it up. 

While the doctor was cleaning me up, she had this loathing expression on. It was as if she hated every second she had to be touching me. She was true to her words, she didn’t particularly like me. Not that I cared. 

I tried to focus my mind on something else, not the doctor. My eyes caught the sight of Vince’s face where he hit Wann’s fist with his jaw. The bruise was in full bloom in dark yellows and blues. At least it was healing properly. I noticed Vince trying to move his jaw, to test the hold of the wires that were holding his teeth together – immobilizing wide jaw movements. The guy had to be annoyed to be only able to sip porridge and other mashed foods through a straw. 

He caught me staring and tried to smile, pain seemingly piercing his face. 

He mentioned the blood donation to the doctor and she shot him down immediately. 

“We can’t have her at full power in times like this. What would you do if she decided to actually disregard our threats?”

“You mean the threats to kill me?” If his jaw hadn’t been already wired together, he would have clenched it. 

“Yes. Those,” the doctor smiled to the boy and continued to clean my face. 

She fully wiped my face and some more, adding more antiseptic with that repugnant smell which was making me want to hurl. I kept trying to move away from her, but she had a strong grip at my face. It made me think that almost every one of authority in this academy had some kind of supernatural traits to them. Regular humans didn’t scare me that much. It wasn’t like I was afraid of them, I just felt uncomfortable. 

“Well, that’s as far as I am willing to ‘fix’ you,” she said and let go of my face.

“What about the blood?”

“Like I said, no.”

“But- You can’t just do that. She has rights. Stop treating her like some animal,” Vince argued.

“Young lad, should I remind you that,” she pointed at me with a doubtful look, “is not a human and we will not treat it like one. Should have thought before bleeding out like that,” she scoffed.

“If she’s not allowed to intake blood, she will fall into blood-lust and nothing will stop her. Not even me,” it was my first time hearing Vince sound so aggressive.

He was right, though. My blood-lusts makes me insane, uncontrollable until I’m sated enough. So even if they did kill Vince right in front of me, I’d probably just suck the guy dry in the light of madness and then slaughter them all for destroying that little hope I had left when I finally regained my sanity.

Wann was silent for the whole exchange, just observing us, not intending to mediate the situation. It would have been awkward, to be honest, if he was on my, or our, side. He was one of their best hunters, after all. He wasn’t a full-fledged hunter yet, for some reason, but he was the best at Huntig academy. He was great at tracking and using swords, controlling the blades as if they were an extension of his own arms. It was beautiful, to say the least, when he trained with his swords. It looked like a dance.

Wann grabbed one of his daggers dangling around his waist beside the Japanese sword and sliced his forearm like it was nothing. The intoxicating smell I’d occasionally catch filled the room in seconds, and I was caught off guard. Vince grabbed me by my shoulders to stop me from leaping on the other man. On the other hand, Wann himself stuck out the bleeding limb and basically shoved it into my mouth. 

“If you need blood, take it. I don’t want you going around killing in-innocent people because you went mad,” he said completely composed and in control of his actions, words, and emotions. 

I did not waste my time to dig in. I felt a bizarre sense of guilt by doing so, but the taste filling my mouth and enveloping my senses made no sense. The smell it exuded was like the best smell imaginable, yet the taste was peculiar. It had that irony tinge blood usually had, but it had other aspects, too. I could easily taste salt, and, for some reason, ginger. But the most odd one was the vanilla. His blood tasted like vanilla ice-cream with the zest of salt, ginger, and actual blood. 

I lapped at his arm greedily, as if it was the first time in a while I drank. I felt so thirsty all of a sudden. It confused me to no end. Vince’s blood was the best-tasting blood, but this, Wann was on a completely different level of good. I have never tasted blood with a specific taste to it. Blood that did not taste like blood was an oddity of itself. 

“Fey?”

Vince’s voice brought me out of my reverie and I realized I had my fangs driven deep into the flesh of the one who willingly fed me. That also was a first. I had a pretty good self-control. I mean, I did not suck Vince dry, even though I was tempted beyond reason. 

I retracted my fangs and opened my mouth wider to let go of the man. Stepping back I gulped the last drops of that delicious essence and licked my lips thoroughly. Vince kept a firm hold on me, refusing to let go even when it was evident I won’t do anything. After a beat I noticed his arms trembling, his breath short. 

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous.” My words shook him out of whatever he was having and he released me. 

“And what if I was?” he mumbled and wiped my face with a dab of cotton.

“Okay, young ones, get out of my office. Vertig will know about this. Shoo.”

The doctor lady chased us out, Wann closely behind, tying a bandage around the wounded area. I really wanted to know what made him change so much in practically one day, but I decided not to play with my luck for today. Maybe he was smarter than I gave him credit, but it’s only now he started acting it. 

Vince was holding my arm in case I decided to go rouge, I presumed. His hands were still shaking, palms sweaty and scorching. 

“Actually, I’m kinda hungry,” I said and turned for our dorm. 

“You just sucked a ton of blood outta me, you still not sa-satisfied?”

I raised a brow at Wann’s comment and pursed my lips, just to spite him.

“I just quenched my thirst, not my hunger. Those are two different things.”

“So what, you still eat?”

“Yes. I eat because I have most internal organs humans have. What do you think I’ve been doing the past month at breakfast?”

“Blending in. Hell if I know. You keep c-confusing me. First, I just hated you with no basis. It was offensive. To me.” He was trying to talk to me. It was getting even weirder. “I was taught to kill the non-humans. Exterminate the evils of the world. But I knew what it was. And why they were doing it. At least, I t-thought I knew. It appears I was just being an idiot. Following orders of people so afraid to lose their power, they waged wars against beings who wanted to just blend in. Unless you’re lying and I’m just being f-fooled. Like- like- like a fucking moron I am.”

“Argent, calm down,” Vince talked in a low voice, almost a whisper as if he was afraid to step out of line. 

“I can’t. I just-”

Wann grunted and smashed his fist to the wall. I swear, I could hear something crack, but the guy himself didn’t mind.

“It’s like my life was a lie. And every truth I be-believed in turned out to be a hoax.”

“Not every truth. Just the part where all of them wants you dead.”

He scoffed at me and shook his head. “I still hate you. And all non-humans deserve to die. But at least now I’ll think twice before cutting their heads off, since it wouldn’t do much good, right?”

So that’s what was bugging him. The fact that they did not know how to efficiently kill off supernaturals. He wasn’t reconsidering his life choices or that maybe there were some creatures who wanted nothing to do with humans. He was just bummed out he didn’t know how to kill them. Though, a couple of the things he said were confusing at first, maybe because he still was confused. Analyzing the human brain was hard. And he wasn’t an exception I thought he was. 

“How about we eat and then figure things out slowly?” Vince tried to play a peacemaker again. 

“Not interested. I had not and I will not eat at one table with a freak and a fa-faggot.”

Aaand there he went. Good old Wann. Didn’t take long for the lovely personality to come back. Honestly, I liked him more that way – at least I knew what to expect from him.